The goal of this postdoctoral training program is to prepare young scientists for independent careers in cell and developmental biology. The training faculty, who all have established laboratories at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, cover a wide range of topics including oogenesis, spermatogenesis, embryogenesis, signal transduction, neurogenesis, cell cycle control, mRNA translation, localization, and turnover, cell motility and the cytoskeleton, and transcription as well as chromatin structure. Many different biological systems are used to examine these processes, such as Drosophila, zebrafish, Xenopus, mice, C. elegans, and mammalian cell lines. Each of the four requested trainees will have the Ph.D., M.D., or equivalent degree, and be advised by one or more training faculty. Trainees, together with the preceptor, will choose an Individual Training Committee (ITC), which will monitor scientific progress. Trainees will be selected from among several candidates by a Training Advisor Committee (TAG), which is composed of the program director and three additional training faculty. The scholarly atmosphere at the University of Massachusetts Medical School is superb, and the trainees will have access to an extensive array of well-equipped and very active research laboratories that address fundamental questions in molecular, cellular, as well as developmental biology.